All at Sea - The Trafalgar Collection

Last week saw the last 'All at Sea' post on the blog looking at models added to the Trafalgar collection, with the showcasing of the small ships, HMS Pickle and Entreprenante and the French brigs Furet and Argus.

It's always fun and a great feeling of satisfaction when a long held project comes to completion especially one that has been so concentrated in so short a time as the eighteen months of the COVID 19 lockdown; which only helped propel the progress given that face to face gaming and other wargaming related social activities that normally fills a lot of my hobby time was practically non existent.

So below are some pictures from my table showing the complete collection of models that started to come together back in October 2019 and with the last model added on April 1st 2021.

The Trafalgar fleets completed with the British in the front row, then the Spanish, with the French to the rear. All the command ships have been pulled forward from their respective groups to help illustrate them in the video I have put together looking at the collection and how I intend to play with it. 

I have no idea the hours put into this collection that totals some seventy-seven model ships all painted and fully rigged with another thirty odd models in the cabinet and not included for these pictures.

Of course the complete project isn't really done until these models are on a very large set of tables in full battle array with players fully engaged in recreating the battle of Trafalgar with them and to do that now requires some other activities now underway to organise such a game; with the extra mats needed to play it, together with the rules and game admin materials, and suitable storage and carrying containers to safely move the collection around.

The models all have their new pennant numbers on the back of their bases that correspond to those on the respective ship lists seen in the lower corner of my table, alongside the signalling card, which also use those same numbers for ship to ship signalling.

However at the moment I have taken a break from JJ's shipyard to just enjoy looking at the work done and messing about with the game organising side of things and starting to reach out to suppliers of the other items mentioned.

Well not really, the next four Spanish ships of the line needed to facilitate Cape St Vincent are already in the yard, undercoated and awaiting the brush which will start happening this weekend.

This project has been a major 'to-do' on the old bucket list of aspirations in the hobby and it has been really nice sharing the progress with others here on the blog with an equally keen interest in this theme and how to wargame it.

As with the previous work on bringing together Talavera 208, another long held ambition, the gradual accumulation of models and bringing them here to the blog has opened up new contacts with new friends in the hobby who have commented and who are doing similar work of their own and like any other artistic endeavour one often sees inspiration created from others work and I certainly fall into that category.

Thank you to everyone who has commented and helped spur me on to finish this collection, it has been a lot of fun sharing the journey.  

Along with these pictures of the collection I have put together a video presentation going through the details of it and plans to game with it as well as answering questions that keep coming up from other folks keen to have a go at doing something similar.

As well as getting back to gaming with friends at the DWG and setting up games with the collection, I look forward to running these models out at our next Clotted Lard event, COVID regulations permitting, and hopefully with a return to normality, extending the invitation to play more widely with a view to using the games as a charity raising vehicle for our veterans, which I discuss in the video.

I think the really exciting aspect of completing this collection is that with Trafalgar being the biggest clash between the naval superpowers of the time, other actions from the period become much more easily pulled together, so leaving just another eleven Spanish ships of the line to be added for Cape St Vincent and then looking to add perhaps the Danes and Dutch and some at anchor French men-o-war.

In addition I will turn my mind to creating terrain for some of the coastal actions as well as adding to the gun-boat and small-ship collection, so still plenty to excite the interest.

Anyway if you are keen to know more and see my thoughts about this collection I attach a link to the video presentation

Links to suppliers mentioned in Vlog:

https://toofatlardies.co.uk/product/kiss-me-hardy/

Summer Special 2005 - Let's Refight Trafalgar Article
https://toofatlardies.co.uk/product/2005-summer-special/

Warlord Games Black Seas 1:700th Model Ships & Terrain

Tiny Wargames - Sea Mat

Bases from Fluid 3D - See links below

Bases for Small Unrated Schooners & Cutters

Bases for Brigs
Bases for Frigates
Bases for 3rd Rates
Bases for 1st & 2nd Rates